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Apple’s New Plan: “If You Can’t Beat ’em, Join ’em”

Something interesting jumped out at me this morning as I was rummaging through The Wall Street Journal trying to determine the difference between real news and fake news. It’s not as easy as you think, especially if you start with the premise that all news is fake, as some on the political and religious spectrum sometimes do.

That Apple has somewhere around $200-billion in the bank is common knowledge, but the company seems stymied when it comes to putting that money to good use. I say, “Just buy Hollywood” and be done with the whole content and Apple TV issue, but that seems like a public power grab that wouldn’t go over well. Instead, based on the fake news I read today, Apple seems more likely to spend money the old fashioned way– by investing in content production the way Amazon and Netflix and other decidedly non-Hollywood heavyweights are doing.

In other words, Apple will create its own content. Why not? They have the money. And look at YouTube. It can’t be that difficult.

Apple has the money chops to invest in made-for-iTunes movies and TV shows, and could easily dwarf what Amazon and Netflix spend to get their own content to compete with the standard Hollywood content they both stream to the masses.

Wait. What? ‘Made-for-iTunes?’

Yep. That’s the part that struck me because Apple already has a built-in streaming move and TV show subscriber base. Apple Music already has 20-million paying subscribers, and iTunes already has nearly a billion accounts, most of which have credit cards, so there is an audience that is huge; sleeping, maybe, but huge.

Already there is word that Apple executives are out on the streets of Tinsel Town drumming up the appropriate contacts to help with original content production. Good for Apple. At least they’re trying to get into the game, but in this case it’s a matter of “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” Apple has the money to become a substantial Hollywood player and the first to benefit might be the 20-million or so Apple Music customers who could get original streaming content from the iTunes Store and on Apple TV.

Everybody wins.

Hollywood gets more money to spend. Apple gets some original content to distribute. Viewers– as subscribers to Apple Music– get something extra of value for their monthly expenditure. And critics will have something new to criticize about Apple’s entrance into content production.

See? Win, win. And, two more wins.

In essence, Apple would be joining Hollywood (not really Hollywood, but the titular head of worldwide content production if you leave out Bollywood) to create original content only for its own customers– just like Amazon, Netflix, HBO, and a few others.

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And maybe that’s exactly what Apple is doing. By making original content available for Apple Music subscribers the content gets a large audience but Apple isn’t crippled by having to bundle a package of crummy content. Netflix and Amazon had poor selections for a few years until their audience grew large enough. Apple can jump start that with Apple Music subscribers, then iTunes users, etc.

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